Wednesday, November 16, 2011

BACCHUS General Assembly Recap

So I just realized I have a lot of recapping to do because I haven't posted anything since our Euchre Tournament. I've been super busy at work (in a good way) and blogging seems to have taken a back seat. Could it be? Am I cured of my blogging habit that's lasted all these years? Only time will tell.

For now, I thought I'd briefly recap my trip to Reston, VA for the BACCHUS General Assembly. Because we were scheduled to present at 2:00pm on the first day of the conference, we had to leave Bowling Green at 3:00am sharp! Rather than taking two cars, Faith rented a minivan for us and our 4 undergrad students from the Student Wellness Network. It was so early, I forgot to pack dress pants. Notice my jeans in the award ceremony above... yeah...

I thought a road trip would be the perfect time to try out my new Waze app that Chris showed me a few weeks before. Basically it's a free GPS app for the iPhone with live traffic updates, road hazards, and even ways to message other drivers. It sounds like a very wellnessy app to have for a trip to BACCHUS (except the texting part, but there is a pop-up that disables texting while you drive).

So we're cruising along, listening to Pandora - Owl City station, and munching on virtual PacMan candy on the Waze. Everything was cool until we hit the mountains and the Waze signal got very choppy. When we stopped for McDonalds breakfast, the signal was lost for good. Luckily I brought my old GPS (Jessica Garmin) with me. Even though her maps are about 6 years old, I knew the signal would be reliable. So there I was navigating with both systems running: One with old maps and a strong signal, and one with new maps that would cut in and out.

Aside from the navigation difficulties, the conference went really well. We ended up winning a Mental Health Program award for our "Erase the Stigma" panel discussion on mental illness. Courtney, one of our students, was also elected to the Student Trustee position on the national board. Sweet!

I didn't get as many workouts in as I was hoping (seems to be a theme this month), but when I went to the hotel gym I ended up meeting and lifting with Jared from Montana and Gerard from Jersey. I love starting up convos in the hotel gym, it's a laid back environment and you know nobody is a regular so you're not interrupting anyone's routine.

We skipped a speaker showcase on one of the nights and went in to DC to do some touristy stuff. After the sun set, it was really cold and windy - and once again I tried to rely on technology to get us around. I even downloaded Yelp to try to find us a place to eat, with no success. None of the restaurants were correct on the map, so we ended up wandering around. By wandering, we stumbled across the Occupy Washington camp - so I guess that's something I wouldn't have seen had we gone directly to the restaurant.

I feel like I'm writing a long postcard with this recap, but it feels good to be blogging. I'm actually in the hotel for another conference right now, which is why I even have time to jot a few things down. More on that later, I'm sure!